Emergency Notification and Warning

Clark Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency serves an important role in issuing certain warnings within Clark County. Additional agencies may also issue warnings to our citizens. Together, local, state, and federal agencies work to keep the public informed of emergencies, and advise them of what protective actions they should take.

One or more warning methods might be employed in an emergency incident, but it is also possible that a warning might not be issued if the emergency occurs very quickly and is already over. If the issuing agencies are also affected by the emergency they also might be unable to carry out their function. However, all of them, including CRESA, are strongly committed to getting timely information out to the public. There are many backup plans in place, including cross-training of personnel, backup systems, and backup facilities that protect our capability to issue emergency instructions to the public.

Emergency personnel are trained to quickly decide on a case-by-case basis which of the warning methods would be most appropriate and effective in getting an urgent warning out to the public. The following warning methods might be used in an emergency: .

NEW - Emergency Community Notification System, often referred to as "reverse 9-1-1"
Emergency Alert System (EAS) warning sent out to all broadcasters to relay to the public
NOAA Weather Radio, which will also alert to an EAS activation
Private notification services, which may also relay EAS alerts
For emergencies at the Camas mill, a siren sound, flashing road sign, and associated localized radio broadcast
Electronic road sign activation
Emergency news release posted by CRESA or other agencies to www.pdxinfo.net

Emergency Community Notification System

See the video (WARNING: Very large .wmv file, 22.9 MB)
Download the informational brochure (Adobe Acrobat/PDF file, 119 KB)

The Emergency Community Notification System (ECNS) is the latest technical system added to CRESA's warning and notification capabilities. Often referred to as "reverse 9-1-1", the system uses a confidential phone database that includes unlisted numbers and quickly delivers an automated emergency phone message. It can make up to 6000 calls per minute. By law, it can only be used when other warning methods would be ineffective, dangerous, or too slow in telling the public to take emergency protective actions.

For example, it is possible that at some time in the future police might need to warn you of an armed gunman in your neighborhood. They might tell you to stay inside, lock your doors, and stay away from the windows. Or the fire department may order you to "shelter-in-place" indoors to protect yourself from a dangerous chemical release nearby. In both of these situations, a 911 dispatcher or another authorized official would trace an outline of the danger zone on a computerized map. The system would quickly tell citizens in the affected area what to do by sending an automated phone call directly into their homes.

Limitations

Although this warning method can be very effective, there are phones that cannot receive ECNS notices:

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) where a computer provides your phone services
Cellular phones, since they are not in the E-911 phone database
TTY/TDD phones (there is no industry-wide technical standard by TTY/TDD manufacturers, so the ECNS cannot be designed to match up to a universal technology)
Landline phones that require caller interaction of any kind

Telemarketer blocking technology that requires interaction
Home or office phone systems that require entering/saying an extension, even "0"

The system will leave a message on standard voicemail or on an answering machine, but even for standard landline phones there are still situations that might result in a missed message:

Phone line constantly busy (tied up with the internet, or on another call with no call-waiting service, etc.)
Call-waiting beep ignored by the person on the phone
Person answering the phone does not understand the message or recognize its importance (non-English-speaking, young child, etc.)
Away from the phone (away from home, outside, in the shower, etc.)
Hanging up on the automated message (mistaking it for a telemarketing or prank call)

How to Respond to an Emergency Notification

Stay on the phone and listen carefully to the entire message - DO NOT HANG UP!
Keep paper and pen by the phone so you can take notes to record details, such as safe evacuation routes if they are specified and that is what you are asked to do. The message will not be repeated.
DO NOT call 9-1-1 to verify the information. You should only call 9-1-1 if you have an actual emergency. Instead, check with a close neighbor to see if they have received the same call and get any information you may have missed. If you truly suspect that you have received a prank phone call impersonating the ENCS, report it to your local law enforcement agency so they can investigate and prosecute anyone who is guilty of this serious crime.
Follow instructions promptly and exactly as they are given. This kind of notification is only issued when fast action is needed to for you to protect yourself.

For Those Who Cannot Receive the Automated Message

If you do not have access to a landline telephone, you will need to work out a notification system with your close neighbors. You may want to let several of them know your situation and ask them to relay any emergency messages to you in a different way. If you rely exclusively on a cell phone or computer for your phone service, you may want to consider adding a landline telephone to your communications services to avoid relying on other people for your emergency notifications, or possibly even missing a notice altogether.

On the other hand, if you know that you have non-English-speaking, hearing impaired, elderly, home-alone-children or other neighbors who may not get the message, take steps to communicate ahead of time with them about the possibility of getting an emergency telephone message. If you can, make arrangements to pass the message on to them during an emergency without compromising your own personal safety.

Emergency Alert System

The Emergency Alert System is the system most people are familiar with when they think about how they will be alerted to an emergency. This is characterized by several distinctive tones that interrupt regular television or radio broadcasts in order to deliver an emergency message. If you see or hear an EAS warning, pay close attention to the information and take notes to help you remember what you are being asked to do for your own safety.

Like the Emergency Community Notification System, the Emergency Alert System is only activated when other warning methods will not suffice. The chief limitation of the EAS warning method is that you need to be monitoring the local media in order to receive the alert, or subscribe to a paging service that relays that information as a text message to your pager, cell phone, or email.

NOAA Weather Radio

The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Portland is responsible for issuing all weather related warnings. Urgent warnings for fast-moving dangerous weather events, such as a tornado or a severe thunderstorm, may also trigger an EAS alert. For other weather emergencies, where additional time can be taken to notify the public, such as in gradual flooding conditions, the NWS issues their bulletins through other methods, posting them on their website, broadcasting them directly on the NOAA Weather Radio, and notifying the media and emergency management offices directly when the situation is more serious.

The NOAA Weather Radio is a valuable piece of equipment that can warn your household of an impending emergency, whether it is a weather related emergency or another kind of crisis that has resulted in an Emergency Alert System activation. The best kind of NOAA Weather Radio is one that has a backup power system, one that carries the Public Alert logo, and one that has a "S.A.M.E." feature - "Specific Area Message Encoding" - programming capability. This allows you to select the specific area that you want to monitor for emergency notifications. With this feature, other than for the weekly test every Wednesday morning around 11:00 am to noon, your weather radio will only sound an alarm if an urgent message is issued for your area. It is also helpful to select a NOAA Weather Radio that has a text message screen to let you review the message in writing if you missed part of the automated voice message. There are also NOAA Weather Radios that can issue an alarm for the hearing-impaired.

There are many suppliers of NOAA Weather Radio, some of which can be found at local stores. There are many more retailers if you search for them on the internet. The chief limitation of the NOAA Weather Radio is that you must be near your radio in order to receive the alert. Those who travel frequently or spend time hiking often prefer one of the handheld models. However, in some cases, radio signals can be blocked by mountains, may not travel more than 40 miles from a transmitter (one transmitter is located in Portland), or can be blocked for another reason.

Staying Informed

Although there are many things that local, state or federal warning points might do to notify you of an emergency, you may wish to be proactive in monitoring alerts for yourself. In the right hand navigation column of this page, you may explore additional links to services and resources to keep yourself actively informed in different ways, or even get involved as a volunteer emergency worker in the communications field.

MORE INFORMATION:

Emergency Management Program
Local hazards and disasters
Emergency Notification and Warning
Emergency preparedness
Hazard mitigation
Emergency planning
Training and exercises
Emergency Operations Center
Volunteer programs
Disaster recovery
Emergency management FAQs
News from Emergency Management

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Important note: Because a variety of methods may be used to warn the public in different emergencies, there is no guarantee that a specific warning will appear on any or all of these sites. These links are provided only as a courtesy for those who would like to proactively monitor them.

Information websites

PDXinfo.net

National Weather Service

Interactive Weather Information Network

Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service

Volcano - Cascade Range Current Update

Recent Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest

Report an Earthquake

Clark County Public Health News Releases

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Washington State Emergency Management

Homeland Security Advisory System